Please remember to send in your race results and details to me as I am aware hat there is a lot going on over the next month in terms of races.

Well done to Paul Chapman and Andy Bryant who competed in the Olympic distance Dambuster at Rutland Water the other week (21 June). Paul was 95th M45 with a 2:58 and Andy was 21st M50 with a P.B of 2:31. You chaps are very versatile athletes! Good luck Andy for Ironman UK this weekend.

Dates for your diary:

Friday 22nd August

Evening down the pub!

Anyone who would like to come is welcome to join in for an informal get together at the Old English Gentleman in Saffron Walden.

Sunday 7th September

Bike Ride and BBQ

A Sunday ride (will form into groups and all abilities welcome!) from LBC at 9am to finish at David and Teresa Peagoods at Debden Green for a BBQ. Those with families or who are unable to attend bike ride are welcome to come along at 12.

Hopefully see some of you next Thursday, 24th July for the bike TT. Good luck to those racing!

What an day it when the Tour de France swept through Essex! I felt very proud of Essex, of the huge support the tour received and our countryside. We don't have the epic sweeping landscape or challenging hills of the North but we looked pretty amazing and I loved seeing the regular routes that we all cycle transformed to the big screen. It was an amazing day to share with friends and I loved the facebook pictures of WT members capturing the spectacle across Essex!

After the huge disappointment of England in the World Cup and Andy Murray's lack lustre performance the TdF really got the whole country excited about sport. With more recent TdF events this week, I really feel for Chris Froome. All in all, it has been an amazing summer for sport although not for the Brits this time.

I managed to take part in my first WT TT last night (and only slightly aching this morning!). Although the weather was hardly ideal, there was a great turn out and atmosphere and I am looking forward to the next one (as a marshal).

>Walden Tri's weather seems to fall into one of two categories. It's either ridiculously cold for June and blowing a gale (I remember one year marshals wearing bobble hats!) or if the sun is shining, it is like racing abroad. Happily, this year we got the latter.

We had a number of members taking part as their first triathlon and those wanting to race on their own turf so a big congratulations to all! By the time I finished on the bike course, I reached the finish chute in time to see Jess and Steve finish who looked like seasoned triathletes. Anyone around at the time will remember Jess' amazing sprint finish. We also had a number of junior coaches take part in relay teams. Andy Dunlop managed to show the youngsters how it is done by running his bike out of transition, gracefully leaping to get on it and then crashing it into the kerb. And did anyone else hear the Elaine's relay team beat Geoff's?

Congratulations to Charlie on a great performance by winning his age group and runner up by a few seconds seconds. And a familiar face to a lot of us....it was great to see Nicki Davis back who cruised round laughing and joking and took home the ladies trophy too. Thank you to all who took part, the marshals and the race committee who work their socks off. I spoke with a number of people after the race who couldn't praise the event enough plus many of them had a very positive experience of their foray into tri. Marshalling was very rewarding. I'm sure I race with a grimace on my face but loads of people actually smile!

I am off to Spain (in about 20 mins actually) if French Air Traffic Control allow it. I am packing my running shoes with good intentions but not sure if they will make it out of the bag!

The uber talented Pete Thompson and Nicki Davis had a super result at the Chilford 10k at Linton. Just to make it a bit of a meatier event, Pete cycled there and back and despite it being a really hilly and rough terrain race, finished 1st in his age group and 9th overall. Well done Pete! Nicki was 2nd lady and only seconds behind her rival.

We also had a great result at Cambridge Tri with five WT members storming round. Congratulations to Chloe Brown who, in her first Olympic Tri, finished 2nd in her age group in 3:11. Philippa Reed (who was considering not even attending due to lack of training!) attained 5th in her age group so super work! Rob Gould cruised in with a well judged 2:32 and Mark Coutts who had a really strong cross country season, finished in 2:23 and 6th in his age group, which is a fantastic result. Oh yes...and Mr Page didn't do too badly either finishing in 2:18, 11th overall and 3rd in his age group. I don't want to praise you too much Simon or you might get complacent and fall off the ice-cream band wagon.

I had a surprisingly strong ride at Walden Velo 101 last Sunday and set myself a new target to beat. Even better, it put some demons to bed after having a disaster of a ride a few weeks back which destroyed confidence somewhat. If I'm completely honest, a friend lending me his £700 wheel set probably didn't do me any harm either! What was also great was the number of WT women taking part for a great day out - namely Debs, Flis, Claire T and Hazel. So great riding ladies, you have put the guys to shame.

I have some time off coming up to look forward to and I can't wait to spend more time cycling the Essex roads and hopefully getting myself to some Wednesday night training sessions. In the meantime, I am looking forward to Sunday and marshalling at WT14, smugly watching whilst others feel the pain factor. If you are taking part, let me know so I can give you an extra loud shout out on the bike course.

I have been very annoying in asking certain members to write up a race report for their big races. Can I say a big thank you to Andy Bryant and Craig Dyce for coming up trumps. Be warned...you could be next! And whilst we are talking about events, well done to Paul Chapman and Howard Williams who enjoyed the long route at the Dragon Ride last weekend.

Secondly, WaldenTRI have been looking into our training sessions to make sure that we are responding to members requests of what they want from their tri club … so please support these sessions. We have had some fantastic feedback on our coaches so lets use them! Within the club, we are lucky to be in full swing with bike TT's and we are now introducing turbo/brick sessions at Friends School. These sessions will make you faster stronger triathletes plus you can take solace that during these hard training sessions, you are suffering in company!

Vince Legg, who has been doing a fantastic job of 'press officer' is having a sabbatical in this role for July and part of August. I am taking over for this period so as of July, could you please send me details of your races and any photos you have so I can inform the press, thank you (lourolfe@live.co.uk / clubcaptain@waldentri.co.uk or message via FB)

Lastly, I had to pull out of Grafman Middle Distance last weekend as I had to admit to myself, I just wasn't up to it. However, I did sit in the sun having a coffee in St Neot's square, where unbeknown to me, a Morris dancing festival was just beginning. Thus followed two hours watching all sorts of shenanigans. I had no idea Morris dancing was so popular or came in such variety (Goth Morris dancers, really?)! So though my weekend didn't turn out as planned, I did witness a lot of people take part in a hobby which made taking part in triathlons quite a sane option.

So I hope your training and racing plans are going better than mine and you have no plans to take up Morris dancing just yet. If any of you are taking part in Walden Velo Ride 101 on Sunday, I hope to see you there